TY - JOUR
T1 - Temperature-Related Mortality in Helsinki Compared to Its Surrounding Region Over Two Decades, with Special Emphasis on Intensive Heatwaves
AU - Ruuhela, Reija
AU - Votsis, Athanasios
AU - Kukkonen, Jaakko
AU - Jylhä, Kirsti
AU - Kankaanpää, Susanna
AU - Perrels, Adriaan
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by following projects: URCLIM (Advance on Urban Climate Services?EU Era4CS, grant number 690462), EXHAUSTION (Exposure to heat and air pollution in Europe?cardio-pulmonary impacts and benefits of mitigation and adaptation?EU Horizon2020, grant number 820655), CHAMPS (Climate change and Health: Adapting to Mental, Physical and Societal challenges, project number 329225) and HEATCLIM (Heat and health in the changing climate, project number 329307) within the CLIHE-programme (Climate change and health, Academy of Finland), and GLORIA (Global health risks related to atmospheric composition and weather? Academy of Finland, project number 310373).
Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by following projects: URCLIM (Advance on Urban Climate Services—EU Era4CS, grant number 690462), EXHAUSTION (Exposure to heat and air pollution in Europe—cardio-pulmonary impacts and benefits of mitigation and adaptation—EU Horizon2020, grant number 820655), CHAMPS (Climate change and Health: Adapting to Mental, Physical and Societal challenges, project number 329225) and HEATCLIM (Heat and health in the changing climate, project number 329307) within the CLIHE-programme (Climate change and health, Academy of Finland), and GLORIA (Global health risks related to atmospheric composition and weather— Academy of Finland, project number 310373).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/1/1
Y1 - 2021/1/1
N2 - Urbanization and ongoing climate change increase the exposure of the populations to heat stress, and the urban heat island (UHI) effect may magnify heat-related mortality, especially during heatwaves. We studied temperature-related mortality in the city of Helsinki—with urban and suburban land uses—and in the surrounding Helsinki-Uusimaa hospital district (HUS-H, excluding Helsinki)—with more rural types of land uses—in southern Finland for two decades, 2000–2018. Dependence of the risk of daily all-cause deaths (all-age and 75+ years) on daily mean temperature was modelled using the distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM). The modelled relationships were applied in assessing deaths attributable to four intensive heatwaves during the study period. The results showed that the heat-related mortality risk was substantially higher in Helsinki than in HUS-H, and the mortality rates attributable to four intensive heatwaves (2003, 2010, 2014 and 2018) were about 2.5 times higher in Helsinki than in HUS-H. Among the elderly, heat-related risks were also higher in Helsinki, while cold-related risks were higher in the surrounding region. The temperature ranges recorded in the fairly coarse resolution gridded datasets were not distinctly different in the two considered regions. It is therefore probable that the modelling underestimated the actual exposure to the heat stress in Helsinki. We also studied the modifying, short-term impact of air quality on the modelled temperature-mortality association in Helsinki; this effect was found to be small. We discuss a need for higher resolution data and modelling the UHI effect, and regional differences in vulnerability to thermal stress.
AB - Urbanization and ongoing climate change increase the exposure of the populations to heat stress, and the urban heat island (UHI) effect may magnify heat-related mortality, especially during heatwaves. We studied temperature-related mortality in the city of Helsinki—with urban and suburban land uses—and in the surrounding Helsinki-Uusimaa hospital district (HUS-H, excluding Helsinki)—with more rural types of land uses—in southern Finland for two decades, 2000–2018. Dependence of the risk of daily all-cause deaths (all-age and 75+ years) on daily mean temperature was modelled using the distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM). The modelled relationships were applied in assessing deaths attributable to four intensive heatwaves during the study period. The results showed that the heat-related mortality risk was substantially higher in Helsinki than in HUS-H, and the mortality rates attributable to four intensive heatwaves (2003, 2010, 2014 and 2018) were about 2.5 times higher in Helsinki than in HUS-H. Among the elderly, heat-related risks were also higher in Helsinki, while cold-related risks were higher in the surrounding region. The temperature ranges recorded in the fairly coarse resolution gridded datasets were not distinctly different in the two considered regions. It is therefore probable that the modelling underestimated the actual exposure to the heat stress in Helsinki. We also studied the modifying, short-term impact of air quality on the modelled temperature-mortality association in Helsinki; this effect was found to be small. We discuss a need for higher resolution data and modelling the UHI effect, and regional differences in vulnerability to thermal stress.
U2 - 10.3390/atmos12010046
DO - 10.3390/atmos12010046
M3 - Article
SN - 2073-4433
VL - 12
JO - Atmosphere
JF - Atmosphere
IS - 1
M1 - 46
ER -